SM NE Infiltration
INFILTRATION We're talking Breaking & Entering here, and boy is it fun. At the very least, the agent is breaking trespassing laws while sneakin' and peekin'. If the agent is worth his salt, that'll be the least of his transgressions. Before walking up to the place, it is a damn-near operational prerequisite that a little surveillance be done. Obviously, the more, the better. At the very least, take fifteen minutes to view the area and walk completely around it to get an idea of the layout. The larger the target is, the more important this step is. It may be less than critical for a single family home, but for some industrial complex, it may be the difference between life and death. Also in preperatory stages is searching for alarm systems. Alarm neutralization comes in handy on knowing where to look, and once near a detection device or control junction, knowing how to shut it off. This would start with looking at the windows for vibration sensors, the latches for contact circuts, where the closed-circut (or infrared or motion detecting) cameras might be stashed. Knowing where trip-beams might be set out, poorly concealed pressure pads, etc. For the obvious out-in-the-open devices, all the Op needs is a pair of binoculars and a little time. For the more exotic detection equipment, he has to be armed with another skill: IMINT (that's Imagery Intelligence). He has to know what he's looking for first (alarm neutering), then he uses his IMINT skill to probe an area with his own devices to see if they are there. These devices are not easy to get a hold of (though a few of them, on the other hand, are grossly simple). For example, this would include goggles to see trip beams (so as to navigate around them), acoustic pattern detectors for motion sensors (to find their field of view and stay away from them), or electromagnetic anomolies indicating underground sensors (like pressure pads, and...walking around them). Likewise, there are several ways to detect their equipment using passive receptors and relying on their own systems emissions to give themselves away. This can tell you different things, such as frequencies and bandwidths used, how it is deployed, and sometimes the underlying strategy of their defenses. To use this passive equipment and analyze the results takes FISINT skill (then subsequently identifying the systems goes back to alarm neutering). There are other things to do, too, such as checking with local (or otherwise) alarm companies to see if they've done any installations (also requiring either a black-bag job, money, an inside connection, or no uncertain threat). Then, before setting foot on enemy ground, trying to neutralize as many threats as possible, preferably without the targets knowing that their system has been compromised. This might include broadcasting interfering signals to keep everything appearing as okay, shutting a system down if there isn't active monitoring of the status displays, or if the system is on-line and externally accessible (about 30% of the time and with medium and small clients only), accessing it directly and playing from the top down. Category:System Mechanics